Marathon Gold Corporation announced that the 2019 winter drilling program has commenced. Drilling efforts at the Marathon Deposit will focus on testing the high-grade core of the deposit. The first 200 m drill hole has intersected abundant mineralization with visible gold and the second hole is underway and currently in mineralization. The success of these drill holes was predicted by its geological model. Additional winter drilling will be focused in the gap area between Marathon and Sprite where winter drilling conditions are preferred. This area yielded good drill intersections last year and provides an opportunity for increased open pit resources. There is also a section of this gap not drilled that is closer to the Marathon Deposit that can be drilled in the summer. Both the Marathon and the Leprechaun open pits have access to significant tonnage of high-grade material (above 4g/t Au) in the first 5 years of operations. By stockpiling high grade mill feed during pre-production and stockpiling low grade material during years 1 and 2, an average of 261,400 ounces of gold can be recovered in years 1 to 5. Further optimization of the Marathon, Leprechaun and Victory pits is expected to be included in the Pre-Feasibility Study.